The present disclosure relates to patient support apparatuses, such as beds, cots, stretchers, operating tables, recliners, or the like.
Modern health care facilities utilize a wide variety of patient support apparatuses. Examples of such patient support apparatuses include beds, stretchers, cots, surgery tables, wheelchairs, recliners, and other types of apparatuses that are designed to help support a patient. Most of these apparatuses include one or more wheels that enable them to be pushed throughout different areas of a health care facility, such as a hospital, a nursing home, an assisted living center, or other environments where such patient support apparatuses are used. In some prior art versions, the patient support apparatuses have included a propulsion system having one or more motors that drive one or more of the wheels and thereby propel the patient support apparatus. Such propulsion systems ease the force that caregivers and other personnel must exert on the patient support apparatus when the apparatus is moved to different locations.